When you sign a contract you are making a vow. God holds us accountable to our vows. What should our attitude be each time we make a vow?
I suspect most of us don’t think of the agreements we make each day as making a vow, but this is exactly what we are doing. Agreements are promises to act, serve or meet some condition in an agreement. And so if we are making a vow then we must be prepared to make good on our promise!
Yet, for many of us, our promises go unsatisfied. Sometimes we are on the receiving end (or should I say the un-receiving end) and sometimes we are the ones who are not delivering on our promises. Either way, promises are broken each day and unfortunately we have simply come to accept it as a way of life – but should we?
God says, in no uncertain terms, we should be sticking to our agreement and we are to deliver on our promises. He even says that it’s best not to make a promise (vow) than it would be to make one only to break it.
In the financial world, we often are promising to pay a creditor according to a set of agreed upon terms. This is essentially the definition of the promissory note. We are agreeing to pay according to the terms and conditions of the agreement. We do this every time we sign up for an application for a credit card, sign a rental lease for an apartment, or sign the many documents for a mortgage. All of these are promises to pay the creditor according to the agreed upon terms.
For the most part, we are generally satisfied with the terms of the contract and more than willing to make good on our promises – that is, until something happens. This something can be the realization that we could have had a better deal, or we find ourselves jobless and unable to pay our bills on time.
Finding a better deal is always a worthwhile goal. We call this due diligence – doing all of the necessary research work prior to signing any agreement. I would even go so far and say many of us take pride in our ability to find the best deal possible. But if we have signed an agreement then we must abide by the terms of that agreement, no matter how much of a better deal we find elsewhere.
Now there are lots of agreements that allow you to bail out when you discover you have a bad deal. Some of these exit or termination clauses cost you money, others do not.
For example, if you are looking to buy a house, you have the option to exit the contract if you discover issues during the home inspection as long as abide by the timelines set forth in the contract. I have done this with a home I was interested in purchasing. After the home inspection I learned that there were more issues than I was willing to accept as part of the contract. I therefore exercised my right to exit the contract – even though it cost me the expense of the home inspection, which was much better if I had gone thru with the deal. The bottom line is that I operated within the bounds of the agreement and kept my promise.
Exit clauses are often found in the PENALTIES section of an agreement. If you place you money in a CD or a 401(k) you know that there are withdrawal penalties if you need your money sooner than the agreed upon terms. And these penalties can be substantial.
And penalties aren’t just for exit clauses. They are used throughout an agreement to deter a party from not keeping to their agreement.
Late fees on your credit debt are a common example of a penalty for breach of contract. We hate late fees but we must remember we agreed to pay them when we are late with our payment. We shouldn’t complain. We should keep to our promise and pay them. Then we should take steps to pay on time and if we can’t, negotiate with the creditor for different payment terms if we need them. Yes, you can do this as the creditor is often willing to do so since they would prefer to be paid than to have you default on your debt. And we should always pay our debts, regardless of what may have changed for us, so take the necessary steps to keep to your agreement or make new ones.
Bottom Line: If you sign an agreement, live by the terms of the agreement. Remember that a borrower is slave to the lender. Always have integrity. And if you don’t like the terms of the agreement, then don’t sign, especially if you can’t negotiate a mutually beneficial set of terms.
Now I would like to switch gears here and talk about the promises we make to others that often don’t have a signed document to go along with them. The first that comes to mind is the most important vow I ever made, the one I made to my wife when we were married.
In my last article, When Two Become One, I talked about how important it is to develop a budget that both of you can live by. At that point, you made an agreement, a promise to your spouse! You have to live by that promise or suffer a lack of integrity and hurt the trust and love you have from your spouse. Be strong and of good character – keep your promises!
Lastly, I want to make note of the fact that we also make promises to God that should also be honored. And if we find that we struggle with keeping our promises to Him or others then we need to pray that God strengthen our integrity and to create in us the power to do what is right.
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